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Thursday, 24 February 2011

Serve you? Not if I can possibly avoid it!

Note: This rant came out after seeing an advert for "Mary Portas Mistery Shopper" or somethink equally asinine. The sight of half a dozen middle aged nincompoops with an oversized sense of entitlement holding signs that read "Serve Us" while standing somewhere on "The High Street" positively turned my stomach. I despise the "Service Sector" with a passion, not least because I used to work for it and hated every minute of it. This country would do well to be reminded that not that long ago the word "serf" was on fashion for very dark purposes. And if things carry on like this it won't be long before it's brought back, with "Vintage" written somewhere on the label.

There are few things more damaging to a human group than having some people being served while they are never the ones doing the serving.

Ms Portas and similar, do I sneak in to your workplace to pass negative judgement about how you do your job? Because I am sure that many people would jump at the opportunity to tell TV presenters how bad their performance is and how poor the material that they make has become.

But that’s impossible, of course. There are “mystery shoppers” for the poor, but surprisingly there is no equivalent for the rich. A good, strong argument can be made that while poor workers, those at the bottom of the hierarchy, are more and more policed to make sure they don’t step an inch out of line, rich workers, those at the nosebleed section of the social hierarchy, are not policed at all, with disastrous consequences for everyone. As we have seen, those on the financial sector, with the most power and the most money, have been left to do as they damn well please, and to Hell with the people who have to live with the consequences of their reckless behaviour and pay for the privilege.

The poor are then living in a police state and a “police market”. They are watched over by an increasingly fascist state obsessed with wanting to know how much money they have and how they use it, where they live and whether they are crippled enough to not be fit for labouring. They must subserviently report the most intimate details to an inquisitive Big Brother if they are to access their right to not live in complete destitution. “Benefits” are a right, in case anyone has forgotten. While at work they are watched over closer and closer, to a dehumanizing, demeaning, and degrading point, if they are to be paid the lowest wages that the law allows.

Meanwhile the wealthiest people on the planet can wreck holy havoc over the global economy and escape accountability.

How about a big demonstration outside Wall Street banks, with millions of people holding placards that read “Serve US”?

Just in case there are some woolly-brained middle class people who don’t understand what I’m saying here and who have the temerity to demand better service from the lowest paid workers in society, let me put it in plain English.

“Want more than minimum service? Pay more than minimum wages.”

Or for those who feel outraged at this statement: want to be “served” better? Pay more. I’m sure that Chanel, Dior, and the like will be more than happy to pander to your every need. It will cost you, of course. But the right to be treated like royalty has to be paid. At least in an economy where "serfdom" is not imposed by brutal force.